The Slovenian, who suffered a wrist fracture in April, came into the Tour unsure of his form.
After two weeks of going toe to toe with his Danish rival, he was crushed by the defending champion in Tuesday's time trial before cracking in brutal fashion in Wednesday's final Alpine stage on the lung-busting Col de la Loze.
Vingegaard said his Jumbo-Visma team had a plan to make Pogacar crack, but the 2020 and 2021 champion saw it differently.
"The only moment they tried to crack me was on Marie Blanque (in the Pyrenees in the opening block of racing).
"He was so much better and the next day they tried to crack me completely but I won the stage," Pogacar, who finished second overall, a massive 7:29 off the pace, told a news conference.
"After that I just cracked myself alone. Nobody cracked me it was all on me, nobody did anything to me. It was me and my bad feeling. I cracked myself."
Pogacar could not train as he wanted in May and only resumed competitive racing in late June at his national championship while Vingegaard's preparations went smoothly with an altitude training camp and the Criterium du Dauphine.
He says that early on in the tour people were concerned about the shape he was in, but still thinks it was a successful tour for his UAE team on the whole, with Adam Yates finishing third in the general classification.
"Overall this Tour was great for the team. We came for overall victory but people close to me said after Joux-Plane and the Grand Colombier (at the end of the second week) that I didn't look very good," Pogacar, who won the Paris-Nice stage race and the Tour of Flanders Monument classic in the spring, explained.
"I didn't notice, I was going day by day and I didn't see that I was feeling worse and worse. Then for the Col de la Loze, I don't have an explanation really but I think everybody has these moments in their careers."
On Saturday, however, Pogacar had recovered and rediscovered his killer instinct to win the last mountain stage.
"I was all white all week but now I've the colours back on my face," he said with a smile.
Pogacar, who has drawn comparisons with the great Eddy Merckx for his ability to win on all terrains and in stage races as well as one-day classics, will soon have to find a way to crack Vingegaard on the Tour.
Vingegaard's season is solely focused on the Tour while this year Pogacar sought victories in Milan-Sanremo (4th), the Tour of Flanders (1st) and Paris-Nice (1st).
He won the Fleche Wallonne but a crash on the Liege-Bastogne-Liege meant he could not prepare correctly for the Tour.
He vowed he would remain the 'complete rider' as his team boss Mauro Gianetti describes him, but wants to beat Vingegaard on the Tour before possibly moving on to "new challenges".
"I have a huge respect for him. I think we will have a good future together - I said it like we're a couple," the Slovenian said with a laugh.
"In the future, we'll still battle it out."
